Rohini ashram: Why were free' inmates behind bars, asks Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Thursday raised doubts over a North Delhi-based ashram’s claims that the girl and women inmates there were not illegally confined, saying that if they were free, why were they being kept behind locked doors.

A bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C. Hari Shankar asked why the founder and spiritual head of Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya in North Delhi’s Rohini, Virender Dev Dixit was not making an appearance if he was genuine and honest.

“Where is he? This inquiry (by the CBI) into the ashram, where the female inmates were allegedly kept in illegal confinement will throw him in suspicion, if he doesn’t appear,” the bench said and demanded his appearance before the investigating agency.

The ashram’s counsel, however, told the bench that its founder was not in Delhi and he has sent a message about the court’s order through someone else. Irked, the court wished to know about the whereabouts of Mr Dixit.

It directed the counsel to give information about Mr Dixit by tomorrow, while cautioning the counsel not to act as proxy between the founder and the court.

The bench also enquired into the ashram’s financial details and sought to know from where they were getting funds to run the institution.

It asked the ashram’s lawyer that “if you are claiming that the inmates are free, then why are you controlling their movements”. “Why are you controlling, how they should dress? Why are you not allowing them to meet their parents? Why does your ashram look like a fortress and why there are metal doors, grills and locks at every five feet,” the bench asked.

It asked why the female inmates are not being allowed to move out of the ashram. On Wednesday, the court directed the CBI to probe into the alleged confinement of the ashram’s female inmates where, it was claimed, they were kept in “animal-like” conditions behind metal doors in a “fortress” surrounded by barbed wire.